Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Be careful, and burn two joss sticks at the temple, Buddha will bless you,” said the monk.

“Thank you, Master,” said the young man with a smile. He took out a stack of cash and gave it to the monk.

The monk took the money pleasantly.

“I believe you have a lot of potential,” said the monk.

The young man went into the temple. The joss sticks were not free. He had to pay for them.

Actually, the Buddha was too busy to answer every single person who burned the joss stick in the temple. There were too many people making wishes.

The young man bought three joss sticks, then he burned them in front of the sculpture of Buddha. After he had finished burning the joss sticks, he looked up at the big sculpture, which was over ten feet high, and stared at its mysterious smile.

…

“We haven’t gotten a clue yet. There were no fingerprints. Nothing from the criminal had dropped, and even the footprints were destroyed. It must be a serial killer!” said a detective.

Several crime experts were having a meeting in Lianshan town center to discuss a serious of crimes in Lianshan recently. They came with a mission. The local government took the crimes seriously and gave deadlines to solve the crime. However, the crime scenes shocked the police and crime experts. The offender was very cunning.

“Let us think hard about this. We must have missed something,” said a crime expert.

A rare inch-by-inch search was happening in Lianshan town center.

Every visitor to Lianshan was checked thoroughly. In addition, everybody with a criminal history was asked to be interviewed at the police station.

“Sir, I do have a criminal history, but that was a long time ago when I was a teenager. I’m a different person now,” said a man with a tattoo on his forearm.

“I just stole people’s purses. That was all. I don’t have the guts to murder anyone!” said a thief.

“Sir, I just came back from Tibet,” said a man in his 30’s.

…

Wang Yao was not affected by the crimes in Lianshan town center at all. He drove to Pan Mei’s clinic in the morning as he promised to stay there for the whole morning.

Wang Yao had been trying his best to upgrade through the system to get more skills. There were many ways to get skills and experience. The most common way was to complete the missions given by the system. The other ways included curing patients and brewing decoctions. However, they were never straightforward. He would get more skills and bonus points by curing a patient with a tricky disease than curing a patient with common diseases like a cold. Brewing decoctions worked in a similar way. He would obtain more bonus points by brewing a special and rare decoction than brewing a simple decoction.

However, tricky diseases were never easy to cure, and special decoctions required licorice roots. He barely had enough points to keep going recently, and only a handful of herbs in his herbal field met the criteria of brewing a special decoction.

Although treating patients with common illnesses and diseases was not the most effective way to obtain bonus points, Wang Yao still had to do it. He had also promised Pan Jun and Pan Mei to visit the clinic whenever he was available.

It was the weekend. Normally, there were a lot of patients in the clinic. However, there were only a few patients today, including visitors who didn’t come to see a doctor.

“Not so many patients today?” asked Wang Yao.

“Yes, due to the murder case a few days ago. Everyone was nervous in the town center. You can still see people around during the day, some at night, but you won’t be able to see anyone today,” said Pan Jun, who was also available to visit the clinic today.

“They still haven’t caught the criminal?” asked Wang Yao.

“No, I heard from a policeman friend of mine that the crime experts from the county hadn’t achieved anything yet. They haven’t even found any useful clues. I heard the criminal was a serial killer,” said Pan Jun.

“Serial killer?” Wang Yao was shocked.

Everybody knew that killing five people in two days was considered a major case in the country. There should be a related criminal history if the murderer was a serial killer.

“Well, I’ve seen the two policemen’s bodies.” Pan Jun lowered his voice after looking around.

“Have you?” asked Wang Yao.

“Yes, the bodies were sent to the hospital where I worked for an autopsy. The wounds killing them were at their chests. Their hearts were taken,” said Pan Jun.

“Their hearts were missing?” said Wang Yao in shock.

He had only come across such cruelty in books and movies. He never thought that it could happen in real life. The killer must be a very sick person.

“Yes, their hearts were gone, and they were taken out by bare hands,” said Pan Jun.

“Really? From their chests?” Wang Yao’s face turned white.

“Yes, they didn’t seem to be taken out by a blade or a sword. It looked like they were taken out by bare hands,” said Pan Jun.

“By bare hands? How can that be possible!” said Wang Yao in shock.

How hard human bones could be was beyond his imagination. Tearing the muscles and tendons and breaking bones using only your hands was something that could only appear in novels. It was almost impossible to happen in real life.

“I agree with you. I also didn’t think it was possible!” said Pan Jun.

Unless?

Wang Yao thought of a possibility.

“Anyway, let’s hope they find the killer soon,” said Pan Jun.

“Yes,” said Wang Yao.

Wang Yao only saw one patient in the morning. He had lunch in the town center. By the time he was ready to go home, he was stopped by a call from Wang Mingbao who wanted to see him in person.

“Hello, Mingbao, what do you want to talk about?” asked Wang Yao.

“Nothing special, I know you are in the town center, don’t rush home. I’ve asked Li Maoshuang, Wei Hai and Tian Yuantu to have dinner together. Do you want to join us?” asked Wang Mingbao.

“Sure, I can go home later. See you soon,” said Wang Yao.

Soon, Li Maoshuang, Wei Hai, and Tian Yuantu joined Wang Yao and Wang Mingbao.

Wang Yao took the chance to check Tian Yuantu and Wei Hai’s pulse. They were both in good condition.

“Good, you both look well,” said Wang Yao.

“Thanks to you!” said Wei Hai.

“Is everything going well with your company IPO?” Wang Yao asked Tian Yuantu.

“Sort of. I’ve done all the paperwork. Finally, it’s done! I’ve been thinking of it for ages. I didn’t expect it had such a negative impact on my health!” said Tian Yuantu with a sigh.

“God won’t give you everything you want,” said Li Maoshuang with a smile.

“I was like you previously, thinking of my business all the time until one day I ended up having such a weird disease. I almost lost my life. Now, I know nothing is more important than health. I guess you have the same feeling now?” said Wei Hai.

“Yes, I started to have the same feeling when I was in the hospital at Dao City,” said Tian Yuantu.

People had to experience certain things to change their minds. They wouldn’t take other people’s advice.

“Well, people in town are scared of their own shadows now,” said Wang Mingbao

They started to talk about the murder case in town.

“Nothing like this has ever happened in Lianshan,” said Li Maoshuang.

“I don’t know if that killer has left Lianshan already. Have those criminal experts found any clues?” asked Wei Hai.

They chatted for a long while and left for the Healthy Cuisine restaurant downstairs when it was almost dark. Normally, the restaurant was full of clients at this time of the day, but today, it was so quiet inside. Only a few tables were occupied; the lobby was empty.

“Hello, great to see you guys here, please come in.” The owner welcomed them into the restaurant as he had already known them.

“Hello, your place seems to be very quiet these last few days,” said Wang Mingbao.

“Exactly! It is all because of that killer. You won’t find many people outside after 8 pm, let alone in restaurants,” said the owner.

“We are all tough men; we are not afraid of the killer, and we have a Kung Fu master with us,” said Li Maoshuang.

“Really?” The owner thought he was joking.

They sat at a table next to the window. Dishes were soon served.

It was nearly 8 pm when they had finished dinner.

“Hey, I don’t think you should go home tonight. You can stay at my place,” said Wang Mingbao.

“I agree. Stay here tonight. I also worry about you walking home alone,” said Wei Hai.

“I’m fine, didn’t you say that I was a Kung Fu master?” said Wang Yao with a smile. “Well, you guys should go back now. See you later.”

“Call me when you get home,” said Wang Mingbao.

“Sure,” said Wang Yao.

There were very few cars on the street at night as Wang Yao drove home. A car passed him every three to four kilometers. All the vehicles were traveling fast on the street.

…

It was dark outside.

Two people were running extremely fast in the field as if they were running on even ground.

They were as fast as hunting leopards.

What the hell? They are running so fast!

What?

Wang Yao suddenly had a glimpse of two shadows flashing through the field next to the street while he was driving.

What is going on?

Wang Yao believed something bad was going on as he saw the two people running in the dark.

Therefore, as a responsible adult and citizen, he called the police right away.